William A. Gamson has been a Professor of Sociology at Boston College since 1982. Before that, he received a Ph.D. and served as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan for 20 years, and a research associate at Harvard for several years before that. He served as the president of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in 1993-1994 and chaired several sections of the ASA.

He has received a number of awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship.

He has numerous publications to his credit including the award-winning "Talking Politics" (1992). In 1966, he created a game to teach sociology called "Simsoc" which is considered one of the predecessors of Dungeons and Dragons and Live Action Role Play. He also designed "What's News: A Game Simulation of TV News" in 1984. His work contributed to the creation of Fantasy Baseball.